Review 1268: Real Rome, Via Cappellari 98

When

November 2004, 9 days

Review

Location, location, location. . . Thatís what this apartment is all about. Right off the Campo dei Fiori with so many sights, shops, and restaurants right at your fingertips. Itís a compact little studio (32 m) but packed with many amenities including a washer, hair dryer, iron and board, television, and a CD player. The bathroom was equipped with a bidet and a pretty good sized tub with shower. The kitchen is compact as well with a small refrigerator and cook top but no oven. I did not prepare any meals during our stay so donít know how it is to actually cook a meal there.

There is a comfortable full sized bed, a pull-out loveseat, a small dining table with two chairs, and a wardrobe with drawers for your clothes. Unlike some European apartments, this place had pretty good lighting Ė two overhead lights, 2 lamps and vanity lighting in the bathroom. The only problem was that if you had on too many lights and appliances it would trip the breaker and everything would shut off. However, this was easily remedied with a flip of a switch.

There was also a stand alone radiator type heater that warmed things up when needed. We were there in November and the temperature was mostly mild with a few cold nights. No air conditioning, but luckily we didnít need it.

A few things that some folks might find as negatives:

- There is no lift and itís a pretty steep climb up two flights of stairs to get to the apartment. We thought it was a sure way to help keep off those extra pounds that we accumulated with all the carb laden meals we had each day.

- There is some noise that comes from the street. We were able to shut the window (yes, there is only one) most of the time, which helped to soften the noise a bit. However, we really enjoyed the sounds from the cobblestoned street below and never felt that it interrupted our slumber.

- Finally, as mentioned above, the use of too many lights or appliances at once may cause the power to go off.

None of these things prevented us from having the best vacation ever and all were either easy to deal with or live with for nine days.

Tim Pearson of Real Rome was great to deal with and answered all of our questions promptly. This agency required a credit card to hold the apartment; however, full payment is due in cash upon arrival. There were no deposit, cleaning, electricity or linen fees. The price was right for us and we actually paid less than what was quoted on the website due to some special that was running at the time. The total cost for nine nights was 720 euro.

We also arranged airport pickup and drop off through Tim and were very pleased with the agency that he uses. They were on time each time we used them and we paid the driver in euros at the end of each trip.

This review is the opinion of a Slow Travel member and not of slowtrav.com.